October 2014 entries

October 31, 2014

I made this scary door monster as a last minute door decoration for a kids’ haunted house! I made it in about an hour, and I’m hanging it on my own door for Halloween trick-or-treat, so it will get double use. Plus, it cost me only $2 to make (for the red plastic table cover), since I already had the cardboard, white spray paint, and acrylic paints.

If you don’t want to go the DIY route, we have tons of spooky Halloween Theme Banners you can hang over your door when trick-or-treaters or party guests show up for some fun. We even have more Halloween House Party Ideas that you can check out for decorating tips and tricks!

The monster door decoration looked creepy with neon eyes. (I used neon acrylic paints after spray painting the teeth and eyes white.) Before hanging the monster with duct tape, however, I attached the red table cover to the metal door frame with heavy duty magnets. Then, I cut it into "bloody" ribbons that hung from the monster's fangs!

The monster's face was easy to make! I used the circular plastic base of a huge cupcake holder I own as a guide to make the eyes and the tops of the two big fangs. (You can just use any large circle that you can easily trace.) I then freehand drew the fangs; it doesn't need to be perfect! Using heavy duty kitchen shears, I quickly and easily cut the shapes out and painted them.

I love the drama of this easy door decoration. Plus, I made it in no time, so it's perfect for all of you last minute Halloween decorators out there!

October 22, 2014

The kids at my Open House Halloween Party will love putting one of my ghost sucker favors into their Halloween candy buckets! These candy favors were easy to put together (all I needed was tulle and felt!) and actually made a great centerpiece for my inexpensive Halloween mantle. These favors will go perfectly with the Custom Halloween Invitations, Party Favors and Decorations I’ve chosen for my party, too, and I can’t go wrong with the other Halloween Party Ideas from Party411.com!

October 15, 2014

If you need Halloween House Party Ideas, than these DIY chains are perfect decorations to hang on mantles, in doorways, and on party tables. Chains are very expensive at party stores, and usually they are just made of cheap plastic. I figured I could do a much better job making my own. All I needed was some 1” black pipe insulation, hot glue, and time. Follow my easy tutorial below to learn how, and make sure to check out our Custom Halloween Invitations, Party Favors and Decorations so you can finish decorating your Halloween bash!

On a cutting board, use a serrated knife to cut the pipe insulation into 1" discs. There should already be a long slit down the side of the tube, so you won't have to cut that to link the discs together.

Squeeze a dime-sized dollop of hot glue on the end of each disc and "link" them together.

Make sure to hold the ends together for about 15-30 seconds to allow the glue to thoroughly dry.

Continue linking until you have 6-7 feet of chain. It took me 2-3 hours to do each one. (Granted, I was watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix the entire time.)

The chains were definitely well worth it! Even though they took time to make, the materials were super cheap, and this decoration will last for years to come! Plus, they're really light weight, so it's easy to hang them pretty much everywhere.

Check out a bunch of our other Halloween Party Ideas over at Party411.com for more decorating inspiration, too:

I wanted to add some cheap and easy decorations to my Halloween décor this year, so I designed a Halloween mantle that cost me under $10. Wow! Between the spider webs, ghost sucker favors, and the DIY foam chain, these Halloween Party Ideas looked great but didn’t break the bank.

Check out my cost breakdown for this decorative mantle below. Some of the supplies I already owned (like the ball jars), but the supplies for the sucker favors, DIY chain, and spider web candle jars were easy to find and cheap. (Most of the stuff came from the dollar store!)

Halloween Mantle Materials and Total Cost = $9.67

2 6-foot tubes of pipe insulation = $2.16

Hot glue/Hot glue gun = $0 (already had)

Tootsie Pop Suckers = $1.07 (from the dollar store)

White felt, black felt, and tulle = $0 (already had)

Mason jars = $0 (already had)

LED candle lights (4 packs) = $4.28

2 packs stretchy spider webs = $2.16

For either end of the mantle, I wrapped different sized mason jars in stretchy spider webs and plastic spiders (which came with the webs). The jars were perfect for holding the super light DIY chains in place on the mantle.

These ghost suckers served double duty as a favor and the centerpiece of my mantle decor. I just stuck the suckers in some extra pipe insulation and covered the base with extra stretchy webs.

Plastic Halloween chains from the store are so expensive! So I made my own for under $3 with black foam pipe insulation I found at my local hardware store. They looked great draped across the mantle. I made the look extra spooky by hanging stretchy spider webs among the chains.

The mantle looked great during the day and at night, too! I added fire-safe LED votives to the ball jars and on the mantle under the stretchy webs, adding an eerie glow. I bought 16 votives for around $4! LOVE the dollar store!

Have fun decorating your home this Halloween, and check out my posts on the DIY chain and ghost suckers, too:

October 01, 2014

I found this delicious raspberry cosmopolitan recipe from Creative Culinary and instantly knew that I needed to make my own version for my friend Amber’s Halloween bachelorette party. The colors for the Ghoul’s Night Out party were hot pink and black – so this bright cocktail was a must. Plus, the drink went amazingly well with the raspberry mousse I made for dessert.

For the drink to match my Halloween Ghouls Night Out Invitations and Party Favors, I needed to add a spooky touch to the martini glasses. So, I hand painted black bloody drips just above the stem of each one. I used black acrylic paint (which washed off with water after the party), but you can use an enamel paint if you’d like the design to be permanent.

I also dipped the fims in pink decorator's sugar to finish off the look. The final result was stunning, and each of the guests got to enjoy a cosmo before heading out on the town for the night.

These raspberry mousse cups I made for a Halloween bachelorette party were a huge hit with the bride-to-be and our friends. The colors for my Ghoul’s Night Out theme party were pink and black, so I needed a bright pink and delicious dessert for the girls to enjoy.

My friend, bride-to-be Amber, loved the bright pink chocolate cupcakes I made for her Ghoul’s Night Out Halloween bachelorette party. Of course, the frosting was bright pink too, and I added a Halloween touch with a black spider ring (which the girls later wore that night).

The puffy cloud pink frosting was a nice touch. I used boxed cake mix and canned frosting - no one could tell the difference! I focused more on the decorating details where my cupcakes packed a lot of punch.

To make the frosting, I put several cans of white frosting in my KitchenAid mixer and added 3-4 drops of hot pink food coloring gel until it turned a beautiful pink. (Find the gel at a confectionary shop.) I used a #12 tip with a piping bag to pipe the frosting.

To get a large frosting swirl on each cupcake, I first piped a small mound of frosting in the center.

Then, I piped a second larger swirl on top of the first one for a towering frosting peak on each cupcake.

To finish off the look, I sprinkled each cupcake with decorator's sugar and added a plastic spider ring. (The ring did a good job at hiding my mistakes!)

The cucakes looked amazing on my Ghoul's Night Out Halloween party table along with all of the other favors, desserts, and drinks. Check them out here:

The girls I invited to my Ghoul’s Night Out theme bachelorette party LOVE chocolate, so I made sure to have chocolate favors, cupcakes, and more for my candy buffet! (Plus, a Halloween party isn’t complete without a little of the sweet stuff.)

Buy inexpensive foil wrapped chocolates (hot pink and black, of course!) and pile them in large glass jars along with a scoop. This easy chocolate snack is great inexpensive filler for a large candy buffet.

Color melted white chocolate with hot pink food gel, which you can find at most confectionary stores. Dip Oreos, pretzels, or marshmallows in the melted chocolate and sprinkle with black nonpareils.

A hot chocolate fountain would be a perfect centerpiece for your candy buffet! Surround the fountains with strawberries and other dippable fruit, along with small squares of moist pound cake.

Black and hot pink were the theme's colors, and they worked perfectly for a Ghoul's Night Out bachelorette party I threw for my friend Amber. Duct tape was my best friend as I hung and draped the light weight plastic table covers. First, I hung, taped, and cut the pink backdrop before moving onto the black draping.

To make the draping, I gathered a black table cover and tied it with black string right in the middle. One table cover was long enough to drape one side of the table, so you'll have to do this twice.

I then taped the gathered middle to the corner of the backdrop (love duct tape!), and spread out the part I was planning on draping.

After gathering the ends, I taped them to the middle of the backdrop and then repeated the process on the other side.

To hide the ends at the center of the backdrop, I just folded over some of the extra table cover and secured with duct tape.

I taped a half-fluffed tissue paper pom pom to each corner of the backdrop to hide the strings. There are a lot of easy pom pom video tutorials if you need to learn how to make them.

The tissue poms were simple to make and looked amazing! Plus, they were inexpensive - I just used supplies I already had lying around the house.

Don't forget to drape your table, too! I layered a pink and black table cover and just used duct tape to bring up the corners of the black plastic for a finished look.

I loved the dramatic effect of the backdrop and banner and so did the bride-to-be Amber! My Ghoul's Night Out table was a hit, and so were my other party favors, desserts, and decorations. Check them out: